In recent years, a growing desire to protect the environment has led to the passage of a number of local, state and national laws and regulations intended to minimize littering of the landscape. Since beverage containers in general and metal cans in particular have long been considered a specially offensive type of litter, various localities have required than consumers pay deposits on such containers and that the containers be returned to points of purchase for refund of the deposit. Food market operators have objected to such regulations due to the difficulty of handling large volume of empty containers and consumers often have foregone their deposits due to the inconvenience of packaging the empty containers and returning them to the point of purchase.
Various attempts have been made to provide carriers for empty beverage cans on which a deposit may be refunded. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,525 granted to Sisson discloses a clear plastic carrier resembling a shopping bag having at least one transparent wall to permit inspections of the contents, the wall having indicia which provide an automatic count of number of empty cans. U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,324, granted to Dickens, discloses a foldable beverage can container also made from plastic sheet. While products such as those disclosed in these patents have achieved a certain measure of success, their use in the home would be relatively cumbersome since the mouth of the bag apparently would have to be held open with one hand and the empty cans inserted with the other.
Prior art attempts to produce devices for holding open the mouth of a refuse bag or the like are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,129 granted to Foster; U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,049 granted to Hawk; U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,037 granted to Bass; U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,774 granted to Cote; U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,170 granted to Orem; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,993 granted to Shanks. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,616 granted to Klygis discloses a container carrier in which pairs of closure straps are tied across the mouth of the container to facilitate carrying full containers from the point of sale; however, the carrier apparently is not reusable for returning empty containers.